MICHAEL Appleton has declared himself pleased with Oxford United's dealings on transfer deadline day.

The U's signed forward Chris Maguire until the end of the season after he left Rotherham United and Wolves winger Zeli Ismail on a month's loan.

Two players also left the club.

Danny Rose departed by mutual consent before joining Northampton Town, while Patrick Hoban has signed for Stevenage on loan for a month.

After a hectic week, which also invovled beating Millwall 2-1 on aggregate to reach the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final at Wembley, Appleton was pleased with Monday's business.

He said: "I thought it was good.

"It went better than I probably could have imagined." 

Appleton added: "Obviously, Chris we are more than aware of, certainy I am delighted to get his services until the end of the season.

"And we have got Zeli as well who needs a lot of game time and work in between the games.

"He has only had 30 minutes over the last couple of months because of injury and he had a chest infection for a couple of weeks.

"The fact we have got games coming thick and fast, if we can get him as many minutes as we can I am absolutely convinced he will be a fantastic initial impact player for us and then hopefully one we can see from the start."